As everyone has come to say, diamonds and shoes are a girl’s best friends; however, boys can enjoy shoes, too — probably not as extensively as our girl friends or sisters, though. Oh, I’m not talking about just any old flip-flop sandals; I’m talking about dress shoes.
Also, the old adage says, “If the shoe fits — wear it,” right? Not necessarily . . . there is a time and place for everything. Hopefully, senior prom was not the last time you wore your dress shoes — maybe you went to a wedding, had a job with a formal dress code or went to a dinner party.
These are all basic examples of when you can and should wear dress shoes, but one should never wear them down into the basements of frat houses; you don’t want who-knows-what ruining a $100 pair of Oxfords.
We don’t have to worry too much about this because guys tend to wear sneakers to frat parties. Forgive me; I used this as an attempt to question the potential female readers. Why do women wear their expensive high-heels or expensive boots to frat houses? They just run a high risk of getting them ruined with beer, and after too much beer . . . vomit. Cheap flats, I believe — and yes, I know they are out there — are a much better solution.
Both men and women should only wear their dress shoes to a date party when involved with fraternities and sororities. Otherwise, the relaxed event of a friend’s dinner party in his apartment is the perfect place to wear dress shoes near the Hopkins campus.
Personally, I love dinner parties and push for their idea; it’s a great way to learn how to cook for a lot of people and be a good host. So, if you’ve never been to one, except the ones your parents held when you were in elementary school, it’s the best time to start having them yourself.
Anyway, lecture aside, dress shoes are a lot like ties, which I discussed in my last article. Why are they like ties? Ties add that finishing touch to an outfit near the face whereas shoes finish an outfit at the other end — the feet. They are certainly less noticeable, but if you tried to wear sneakers with a suit, it would look extremely tacky and then people would notice.
There are different kinds of dress shoes: the most common ones being the Oxford and Derby. There is a subtle difference between these two styles. Both styles of shoes are composed of several pieces of leather; the piece that holds the shoe around the foot is called the vamp.
Oxford vamps are sewn underneath the bottom piece of the shoe, whereas Derby’s are sewn over; these are called “closed lacing” and “open lacing,” respectively. Because of these different styles, the Oxford is considered more formal than the Derby since the stitching is hidden. Two other forms of shoes are Loafers, usually identified by the slip-on style and tassels, and Monks, which have no lacing, but are fastened by a strap or buckle.
There are also a few tricks to pay attention to when looking at shoes. Men often try to wear shoes that compliment their actual feet. Men with short, wide feet might wear shoes with a long toecap to make their feet seem longer and narrower.
In the opposite fashion, men with long, narrow feet might wear wider and stubbed toecap shoes to suggest that their feet aren’t quite as long. The base of the vamp, below the actual shoe laces, can also aid in the illusion. Vamps that flare out indicate a wider foot and narrow v-shaped vamps hint at a narrower foot.
I personally own two pairs of dress shoes, one of which I got sometime after I started high school, and a second pair after I started college. Both are Bostonians. One pair is at home, so I don’t have to lug them back and forth whenever I go back for the holidays, and it is the Dennison, a Derby. The pair I have on campus and the older of the two is the Canton, an Oxford. The Dennisons have stockier toecaps and the Cantons have rounded points. Even though I have two pairs, you certainly don’t need many. If you treat your shows well enough, you can make a single pair last a lifetime.
If I were to splurge on shoes in my later years, I would have a pair made by John Lobb Bootmaker. They make exclusive luxury shoes and have been working in London since 1849 as one of the oldest bench-made shoe shoemakers. For you Ian Fleming fans, James Bond wears a pair crafted by John Lobb. These shoes are so carefully made that only a few dozen are fashioned in a day. Only the highest quality of leather is used in making the shoes and most pairs cost upward of $3,000. Lobb takes so much into consideration that many are made measure-for-measure; they will make wooden models of your feet for you to keep in the shoes when you aren’t wearing them which helps maintain their perfect shape and fit. I wouldn’t take out a loan for a pair or anything, but the signature custom shoes are something special and will undoubtedly make others want to “walk a mile in your shoes”; well, if they fit . . .
Whether you want to pay attention to how the shoe was fashioned or the way it makes your feet look or not, the dress shoe is extremely important.
As some last-second advice, wear black shoes with black slacks; brown should be saved for khakis for the sake of color coordination. When you start showing off those fancy dancing feet of yours at the next company ball, you don’t want the ladies to notice that you don’t have a sense of color. So, shine them up and hit the floor in style with your best dress shoes.
